Poll: Almost Half Of Arizonans Support Gay Marriage

Almost half of all Arizonans support gay marriage, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey.

The poll, released Tuesday, found that 49 percent support same-sex marriage while 41 percent oppose it. That's a net change of 9 percentage points from when PPP surveyed the question in November 2011. Back then the pollster found that 44 percent said they support same-sex marriage while 45 percent oppose it.

Broken down by age, a majority of voters (55 percent) under 45 said they support same sex marriage while 36 percent of those surveyed said they oppose it.

The PPP poll came in the aftermath of a week in which Arizona was in the national spotlight over a controversial same-sex marriage bill, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBT people based on religious objections. The bill, Senate Bill 1062, was vetoed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R).

PPP found that just 22 percent of Arizonans supported that bill while 66 percent opposed it. Broken down by party affiliation 11 percent of Democrats supported SB 1062 and 86 percent opposed it. Among Republicans the bill had support of just 34 percent while 51 percent opposed it. Eighteen percent of Independents supported the bill and 64 percent opposed it.

The PPP surveyed 870 Arizona voters, which included 403 Republican voters, from February 28 to March 2nd. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among just Republicans, the margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.